Added Subwoofer

[ACDII]

After spending an hour in the cab listening to 1930's era speakers I decided to look for a bass cannon, but they were too big, not what I had in mind. There are some small computer subwoofers that sound great, but would not work well for this. I did find something that was small enough to fit on the back wall of the cab. So got that, a wiring kit and a line converter. Cost $160.

Install took me a couple days, two days planning, and 3 hours to actually install it. I first created harnesses for the 12v+ from the battery, and the line out cables with remote wire. I wrapped them in tubing, with taped ends to protect against abrasion, and to look like they belong. Then ran the cable up from the battery to a 30 amp fuse, then back down and around to the cab, and fed it up through an opening with 2 other cables, up over the fender, then down to behind the seat. Then popped the top off and ran the line outs from the radio, down the right pillar with the light switches, and down with the other cables to the back.

Since the mounts were not tall enough to clear the bolts for the SMV bracket I made a platform out of plywood to attach it to and drilled holes to clear the bolts. Mounted it with screws and T-nuts, painting the screws to match the back of the cab.

 

[ACDII]

The woofer itself

 

[Rdrcr]

That’s awesome!

Mike

 

[mcfarmall]

Does you tractor have that really annoying vibration like those people's cars with the spokey wheels and thin tires?

 

[ACDII]

If you mean trunk rattle, yeah, the tool box in the back rattles a bit, but a piece of carpet in the bottom will fix that. It only does that because it is directly connected to that back plate where the sub is mounted. Othere than that, it just sounds like a normal car stereo, and no longer like 1930's radio. 100% improvement, and not that expensive considering I paid $30 for the head unit! All in I thing I have $200 with the wiring, radio, and sub, and it does exactly what I want, defeat the boredom when out in the field. I even have a phone cradle attached to the right hand door that charges my iphone.

 

[Donkey Dude]

I know this post is several years old, but if you’re still on the forum, I have some questions about installing a subwoofer in my MX6000. I’m mainly wondering if I have to hook the subwoofer’s power straight to the battery or can I hook it to the red power wire at the head unit. I’m not much of an electrician if you couldn’t already tell.

 

[PaulL]

If you connect straight to the battery you run the risk that it drains your battery when the tractor's off - since the sub is now permanently powered. You'd want to check your sub has a switch wire as well as the main power wire - so it gets it's feed from the battery, but only turns on when the other wire has power (presumably from the head unit or from the accessory or on key position).

Powering directly from your head unit would depend on the head unit - it should tell you somewhere how much power it's happy to put out on that power lead (assuming here the head unit has some sort of "sub power out"). Check the power draw from the sub against the power capability of the head unit.

Alternatively, you could mean just T-ing off the power that goes to the head unit, as that's presumably already switched power (only on when the tractor's on). In that case, you're not putting load on the head unit, you're just increasing the load on the power wire. So the question now is what size fuse it has, and whether it's enough for both the head unit and the sub. In working this out, it helps to know that your tractor has 12 volts, and power (in watts) = volts x amps. The fuse will be in amps. So a 15 amp fuse is enough for 12 volts x 15 amps = 180 watts in total. A 10 amp fuse will do 120 watts. And that's the power draw of the two components, not the power that's written on the tin as to how loud your speakers will be.

If you're not too concerned about the head unit or sub cooking (if something shorts and the head unit dies before the fuse blows) you could just put a bigger fuse in that circuit. Of course not recommended and if something goes wrong your tractor could catch on fire or something, but realistically the only thing that'll go wrong is that your cheap head unit will get cooked and you have to buy a new one. And since the fuse probably blew because the head unit shorted out anyway, you probably were already buying a new one.

 

[ACDII]

I know this post is several years old, but if you’re still on the forum, I have some questions about installing a subwoofer in my MX6000. I’m mainly wondering if I have to hook the subwoofer’s power straight to the battery or can I hook it to the red power wire at the head unit. I’m not much of an electrician if you couldn’t already tell.

Majority of Subwoofers are passively powered, meaning they are directly connected to the battery with large cables, but are turned on from the radio itself. There should be a radio input wire on the sub, and an output on the radio. Run an 8AWG cable from the battery, a 30 amp fuse inline, and you should be good. I also use that power tapped into the control panel for running my sprayer cart. The ECM/PCM for the tractor will drain the battery all on its own, wont get any help from the Sub. I put my L4060 on a battery tender during the winter and might do it during the summer too as it was close to dead a few times last year after sitting. Unlike my B2410 when its turned off, its off, the L4060 has keepalives for the computers that drain the battery. With the radio off, the sub is also off, so no drain from it.